Halls of Fame

Deep Thoughts from 2009:

Last month, I found time to catch up on some magazine reading. In the back of the January 2009 issue of Smithsonian magazine, I read an entertaining one-page commentary on the American fascination with Halls of Fame. The author, Richard Conniff, describes some of the country’s most unusual Halls of Fame, like the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Wisconsin and the Alabama Road Builders Hall of Fame. He asserts that there’s a Hall of Fame out there for everyone, most of them for the Unfamous.

After reading this, I noticed Halls of Fame everywhere! I saw a story on msn.com about somebody I never heard of getting inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame. I received my Spring issue of Triathlon Life announcing new inductees to the Triathlete Hall of Fame.  THEN I drove on Sixth Street by the Sportsman’s Hall of Fame right here in town. Suddenly, everywhere I went, I saw Halls of Fame.

Curiously, I emailed my friends and family and asked them to tell me which Halls of Fame they had visited in their lifetimes, and into which Halls they had been inducted. Their responses were clear. My friends and family don’t give a damn about Halls of Fame. For them, very few halls have been visited outside of Baseball, Country Music, and North Carolina’s own Auto Racing Hall of Fame. Not coincidentally, everyone who had visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY, was in the same station wagon - it was part of my family’s vacation in 1977. My cousin Jean, who has been to a zillion countries, has never been to a Hall of Fame anywhere in the world!  My sports fanatic husband claims that the only one he almost visited was the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield Massachusetts the year we spent Christmas with my sister. I didn’t remember. He reminded me that we stopped there to use the restroom. Ah, yes.

I pondered these responses. Visiting a place where legacies are exhibited of so many young, fit, and brilliant people is inspirational! Halls remind us all that we can reach the limits of our hopes and dreams. But what could have kept my nearest and dearest from taking advantage of such sources of inspiration?  Could it be that the Halls of Fame available to them don’t match up with their own hopes and dreams?

My email also asked, “Into what Hall of Fame, real or fictional, would you like to be inducted and why?” Surely I would hear all about their hopes and dreams!  Nope. Disappointment again.

Other than Angie, who aspires induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for her stellar Guitar Hero skills, my friends and family expressed very little inspiration, hopes or dreams - real or fictional. This says a lot about my social circle.

For example:

- Monica chose the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, stating frankly, “because I rock.”

- Dad said that he would belong “to the Imagination Mediocrity Hall of Fame for obvious reasons.”

- Lindsay declared, “I'd be in the Hall of Fame for people who have NEVER been to a Hall of Fame.”

With so many Halls of Fame out there, why did this group express so little interest in them?  Do these Halls ever serve some greater purpose than as a quick rest stop for weary travelers?  What is their purpose?

One person offered me clarity. This person was the only one of the bunch that I emailed who had actually been inducted into a Hall of Fame. In the Elizabethtown College Hall of Fame in Pennsylvania, you will learn that the 1961 women’s field hockey team played an entire season undefeated as well as not allowing any opponent to score against them that year. The members of the team were inducted in 1989 because their accomplishment had not been repeated in the 28 years that had passed.

Mom is the inductee. She was an 18-year-old sporty redhead at the time. Now she is well over 60, more gray than red, and training for her first sprint triathlon. I asked her what being a Hall of Famer means to her and she replied, “I was pleased that the college honored our team in this way. It was a reward for hard work.”

So perhaps right there was the reason Halls of Fame are so diverse and obscure. They offer thanks and recognition to ordinary people and what they accomplished in their sport, science or craft, no matter how small those personal accomplishments may be to others.  After all, not a lot of ordinary people are ever acknowledged for the small aspects of their hard work. Yes, so many Halls of Fame seem ridiculous. Who cares about record-breaking yo-yo-ers anyway?  I’ll tell you who:  Record-breaking yo-yo-ers! Halls of Fame have nothing to do with fame. Perhaps it’s a misnomer, and Halls of Personal Achievement would be a better term. Perhaps most ordinary Hall of Famers ascribe to Mom's way of thinking: “There isn’t any plate hanging up in my house to show everyone, it is just an achievement in my life that I have to be proud of in my quiet way.”

In reality, don’t we all belong to our own private Halls of Fame?  My friend Terri remembers, “I was the Hopscotch Champion of my grade school, but we didn’t have a Hall of Fame. Current generations will never know about my playground prowess, but being acknowledged as a champ even in the most obscure field is satisfying.”  And I, at age 6, received a small tacky plastic trophy in a bubble-blowing contest, which I kept well into my 20’s. Perhaps small triumphs like these are what we all keep in our own private Halls of Fame.

So the next time I drive by my city's Sportsman’s Hall of Fame, I think I’ll go in. The inductees may have achieved interesting things, but I’ll bet not a single one was a hopscotch queen or bubble-blowing star. I will look at their photos and read their stories and say about them what others might say about Mom's field hockey team:  “Isn’t it nice that they have been remembered?”

The Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, Hayward, Wisconsin.